PART 1
"How my trip went from a relaxing weekend in Paris to me crying in a police station"
Photographs/Words by Rosa Fairfield
Paris is my favourite European city. I've been there something like eight times now. Only... well... this trip turned into a complete disaster that ended with me crying in a police station. Before I get to that, I'm going to tell you all about my trip to La Vallee Village - the French shopping outlet by the same company that brings us Bicester Shopping Village in the UK.
I took the RER train A from Les Halles to Val d'Europe, walked up the street and through the Mall. I stopped at McDonalds to grab food along the way... and oh my goodness! I ended up paying the equivalent of £10 for a meal that would have cost me £5 in the UK. I'm clearly starting to feel the effects of the Brexit vote!
After that shock, I went to find the shopping outlet. When I exited the Mall I couldn't see it anywhere. I must have spent an hour walking around aimlessly searching for it. Okay... so... I did get distracted because I saw lots of pretty pink buildings to take pictures of. Only it was raining... and windy, which made taking pictures problematic, due to my hair blowing in my face and having to run after my umbrella every five seconds. After reaching a pretty high level of desperation and having my bag checked for the tenth time, I finally made it to the village.
It's such a pretty place, with cute little shops that look like mini chateaus. I'm sure it would have been a good day out if it wasn't raining. There were lots of items that I would have loved to purchase but I encountered the same problem as I did in McDonalds, everything was now twice as expensive to buy as it was in the UK. (It was definitely still worth the visit though because they had a different range of designers than in Bicester.)
I guess the rain and the fall in value of the £ were making me feel a little 'blah' about my day, but it was the fact that my phone was stolen - on my way back to my hotel - which really deflated my mood. This turned out to cause more problems than I could have anticipated. To be continued...
... If you want to purchase my dress, it's the Fashion Union one bellow